He described the anti-Russian sanctions as the measures breaking the norms of international law and regulations of the World Trade Organization

SEOUL, May 19. /TASS/. Speaker of Russia’s State Duma, Sergei Naryshkin has praised the position taken by the South Korean government that showed unwillingness to follow in the footsteps of the U.S. and the EU and did not join the anti-Russian sanctions.

"Speaking about politics, I’d like to point out the firm position of the Korean government that doesn’t succumb to pressures, enticements or even threats from Washington and doesn’t join the measures like the illegitimate anti-Russian sanctions," Naryshkin said in Seoul in the course of a working breakfast with Korean business executives.

The impressive list of participants in the meeting and the mass media attention to it testified to a mutual interest of the two countries’ business communities in the development of diversified and mutually beneficial cooperation between Russia and South Korea, he said.

"And there’s nothing that could possibly impede it, not even the knotty situation in the world economy," Naryshkin said.

He described the anti-Russian sanctions as the measures breaking the norms of international law and regulations of the World Trade Organization.

"Incidentally, my meetings with European counterparts, members of parliaments and businessmen have shown they’re displaying a very serious concern over the West’s actions against Russia," Naryshkin said.

"This saga involving sanctions isn’t bringing anything to the West-European business community except losses and potential damages from the abandoning of positions on the quite lucrative Russian market," he said.

As for the Russian economy as such, it has received supplementary stimuli for development and structural reforms as a result of these sanctions. Besides, it has received a stimulus for eliminating imbalances between the Western and Easter vectors of its foreign trade, Naryshkin said.

The working breakfast was attended by business executives of leading South Korean companies like Samsung Electronics, LS Networks, Daelim, Lotte Group, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, BHI Group, as well as by senior officials from a number of foreign trade associations.